Bloodletting? Leeches? A hacksaw and a prayer? Is that really the full story of Renaissance medicine? Historian Alanna Skuse invites us into the surprisingly vibrant and innovative world of sixteenth and seventeenth-century healthcare. Far from being an age of pure superstition, this was a time of experimentation, discovery and fierce debate; when surgeons refined their craft, physicians formalised their training, and new remedies arrived from across the globe. Step into a bustling medical marketplace filled with travelling practitioners, apothecaries and midwives. Meet trailblazers such as herbalist Nicholas Culpeper, pioneering midwife Jane Sharp and courageous plague doctor George Thomson. Encounter household healers, bold innovators and, yes, the occasional charlatan. This is a fresh look at how people really tried to stay alive in Renaissance England.